The Vancouver Canucks will look to even their best-of-five series against the Minnesota Wild tonight. Minnesota got things rolling on Sunday night with a clean 3-0 shutout victory. The Wild won two of the three meetings during the regular season, so it’s good to see things still rolling in the right direction.
We should probably see the same goaltending matchup for Game 2 – Stalock for the Wild and Jacob Markstrom for the Canucks. This will likely be another low-scoring game, based on the massive juice we’re seeing on the under.
Minnesota Wild at Vancouver Canucks
West Qualifying – Game 2 (Minnesota wins 1-0)
10:45 p.m. EST (Watch: USA)
Starting Goalies
MIN: Alex Stalock (20-11-4, 2.67 GAA/.910 SV% this season)
VAN: Jacob Markstrom (23-16-4, 2.75 GAA/.918 SV% this season)
Odds & Betting lines (William Hill)
Total: 5 goals | Over: -140 | Under: +120
MIN | Moneyline: -115 | Puck Line (-1.5): +225
VAN | Moneyline: -105 | Puck Line (+1.5): -255
Injury List
MIN: none
VAN: Loui Eriksson -F (DTD), Jake Virtanen -F (DTD)
Interesting Stats
Experience Matters
Just as we saw in Game 1, the experience factor was certainly on hand. Before Sunday night, the Canucks hadn’t played a playoff game in five years.
Lack of Canucks Offense in Game 1
Vancouver’s top six forwards – Bo Horvat, Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, JT Miller, Tanner Pearson, Tyler Toffoli – all combined for only five shots in the series opener.
Betting Picks
Wild Puck Line -1.5 (+220)
To end the night, I feel like getting dangerous. I really didn’t feel like the Canucks did anything special in Game 1, and maybe that’s wrong of me to put that on a team playing their first game in four months. However, I do think that the Wild are a well-balanced team capable of doing big things. There are some really talented players here and that’ll shine above all else.
